Area bankruptcy filings drop 27 percent in March

After posting their first increase in months in January, area bankruptcies appear to have resumed a more than year-long slide with double-digit drops in filings in February and March.

The region’s March bankruptcy filings showed a 27.4 percent drop from the same month in 2012. That was up from February’s 19.1 percent decline,

Last month, there were 172 bankruptcy petitions filed in the Western District of New York’s nine-county Rochester division. That is 65 fewer than the 237 cases filed in March of the previous year. The March filings included 121 Chapter 7 cases, 50 Chapter 13s and one Chapter 11 petition.

Chapter 7 filers seek to liquidate assets to create a fund out of which their unsecured creditors are supposed to be partly or fully paid in equal amounts. Chapter 13 and Chapter 11 filers try to avoid liquidating by making plans to fully or partly pay creditors over time.